One of my favorite movies from childhood is Scavenger Hunt. I’ve been wanting a friend to see it since I know he’d like it, too, but none of the rental stores seem to have it. It’s listed on the Amazon link, but it’s out of stock. Yahoo’s movies section also had it listed… for $43.00 (WTF?!) I check eBay every now and then, but it’s never turned up there, either.
My earlier attempt to post vanished.
An Enemy of the People - 1978 Steve McQueen film of the Ibsen play that was never released to theaters (nor home video either apparently). I taped it off TV years ago, since I’m a McQueen fan, and had heard how rarely seen it was. Nothing special, plays out like a TV movie really, although it was a nice change of pace for Steve.
The Honeymoon Machine - (1961) another McQueen flick, this time a “wacky” farce caper comedy involving using a Navy supercomputer to beat the house in a casino in Italy. Pure fluff, used to turn up on TNT and AMC once in a while, IMDB says it’s available on VHS. A relic of its time.
The Island - (1980) Michael Caine stinker about pirates who think they are still living in the 1600s, based on a Peter Benchley novel. Used to make worst film/reasons to loathe Michael Caine lists everywhere, but is never mentioned now. Despite how hoaky and terrible it is, I used to be hypnotized by it everytime it turned up on late night TV. Again, apparently available on VHS, but I can’t see there being much demand for it. Would like to see it again, in a “licking at an old sore in your mouth” kind of way.
I used to see Scavenger Hunt on TV quite often until the mid 90s, always seemed like a cheaper It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World to me. Tony Randall, Richard Mulligan, Roddy McDowell, and Dirk Benedict among others, what a cast.
Burn! is one of my top films I wish would get a deluxe DVD and even art house theater re-release.
I got my VHS copy on eBay lo so many years ago. Subtle scenes to look out for:
- Cusack reaching out of the car off-screen and pulling back a beer.
- Robbins following suit.
- The ever-increasing stack of parking tickets on said-car.
One of the peculiarities of home video economics is that hits, say your latest Disney animated feature, will sell on home video for $10-15, while dogs that bombed at the box office, and other obscurities, will sell on home video for over $40. You would think the prices would reflect demand, and be higher for the more popular titles.
If you like that you may like Midnight Madness, Disney’s second PG movie ever. It just hit dvd about a month ago and you can get it for under $10. Plus it stars a very young Michael J Fox.
On an aside, I LOVE ensemble cast scavenger hunt movies! Scavenger Hunt, Midnight Madness, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Rat Race. If you know any more, send 'em my way.
Walloon It isn’t just video. IANA economist, but with most products the price is inversely proportional to the number of units sold.
Disney knows it can sell millions of copies of The Little Mermaid on VHS. It can afford to lower the price, and its own profit margin, and still make a profit.
Whoever made Cats Don’t Dance, knows that it won’t sell many copies. In order to turn any profit, they must keep the price and their profit margin high.
Caught the tickets, missed the beers.
I don’t know if it still works this way, but (at least back in the 1990s) videos would become available first for rental only as a “limited release”. They tended to be more expensive, depending on the flick (one that interested me was $70). Then later there would be the “general release” and anyone could buy it (same flick, now $15). Once in a while, videos were released for rental but did so poorly that no one bothered to invest in manufacturing more “general release” copies (that they figured wouldn’t sell).
I own a few video cassettes like that. The video rental place got three copies for rental. Eventually they sold two “previously viewed” tapes and kept the third for future rentals.
Really expensive copies of VHS usually means there was never a really big run of them.
Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Yours just happens to be wrong. 
Seriously, though, just to balance out NailBunny’s opinion, Tapeheads is a hilarious, eminently quotable, long-overlooked gem. Very much a cult movie, and not for everybody, but if you like quirky, low budget, DIY movies, there’s a good chance you’ll love Tapeheads. And, it’s available on DVD.
I’m ordering my copy right now.
Starring John Wayne as Jenghis Khan, and numerous others,directed by Howard Hughes. Filmed on location in the Nevada desert (during A-Bomb tests)-rumor has it that most of the cast developed cancer as a result of this. Anyway, the film is rarely seen-supposedly, Howard Hughes forbade its release while he was alive-any truth to this? 
Dick Powell directed The Conqueror. Howard Hughes was an uncredited executive producer. It should be noted that although many in the cast and crew died of cancer, all were smokers too. John Wayne lived 23 more years, Susan Hayward lived 19 more years, Agnes Moorehead lived 18 more years, John Hoyt lived 35 more years.
Wow-I completely forgot about this one until you mentioned the plot, and I own a copy on VHS, though it’s at my parents’ house.
John Huston’s The Kremlin Letter. Despite its impressive cast, it’s hardly ever mentioned as a “John Huston movie.” I don’t think it’s ever been “officially” released to video, but it does air occasionally on Fox Movie Channel.
Sole Survivor (1970)
I remember seeing this when I was ten. IIRC, they’re actually ghosts.
YOU made me TINKLE! Darn you, Doc!
You might even say it was done on “spec”.
But resist all urges to buy it. Unless you need cheap laughs at un-super-hero-y behavior like The Atom doing nothing but whining, or J’onn J’onzz lurking in the shadows because David Ogden Stiers was embarassed to be in such a crapfest.
Or how about Green Lantern watching Bad Guy throw object over cliff and helplessly watching instead of … oh, I don’t know, just a guess here … using his ring, or flying?
Even if you don’t count anime (I will always treasure my VHS copy of Warriors of the Wind), there are a lot of animated movies that fall into this category: sophisticated, artistic, and not necessarily for kids.
I’d nominate Starchaser: The Legend of Orin, which I’d really like to own, plus Fire and Ice, Rock ‘n’ Rule, and Wizards…
… which means we are obliged to mention the Fritz the Cat movies, *Streetfight* (AKA Coonskin), and probably the newer Mighty Mouse stuff that Bakshi had a hand in just for the hell of it.
I loved this movie. Jennifer “Ferris Bueller’s Sister” Grey (pre-nose job, post-Dirty Dancing) also provided a voice.
Asimov didn’t write it, but he did re-write the dialog after it was translated into English from the native French. I knew those cheese-eating surrender monkeys (Laloux, specifically) had to be good for something.
Of course, if you’ve seen Fantastic Planet, you’d already know (or at least suspect) that!
Fire And Ice The movie looks great. The plot is minimal. The dialogue is horrendous. But, the movie is definitely worth watching.
Starchaser: The Legend Of Orin I remember seeing this in a nearly empty theatre. I don’t know why it isn’t more popular. Though there are obvious similarities to Star Wars, it isn’t an attempt to rip off that franchise or ride on its coat tails. It’s simply that much of Starchaser is also based on classic mythological archetypes. I once explained to a video store owner that although it was an animated film, it really shouldn’t be in the children’s section.
John D. MacDonald, of Travis McGee series and Cape Fear fame, once wrote a science fiction (some would say sci-fi lite or fantasy, but definitely not his usual fare) short story titled “The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything”. It was rendered with pretty close continuity to the text in a made-for-TV movie bearing the same title, then, surprisingly enough, a sequel was released (different cast) as The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Dynamite.
(For years I thought the same movie had been re-released with a different title, but actually they were apparently two totally different movies.)
I saw one or the other version when it ran (probably the first, since it included Kirby’s discovery of what the watch does), and it was cute enough I tried to rent it years later but no one’s ever heard of it. Never destined to be an enduring classic, it’s just a pleasant piece of cinema-fluff, but it’s really fallen off the face of the earth.
I have yet to locate a copy of either one.